Budget deficit bound to overlie Legislature

[TexasTowelie]

Though the 2017 Wyoming Legislature session is not a regularly scheduled budget session, the state’s fiscal woes and their impacts on education, public lands and state investments will likely dominate the proceedings.

“It’s going to be a lot of serious discussion about the budget,” said newly elected state Rep. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson. “Prices for oil, gas and coal are down, and I don’t see that revenue coming back. Where do we go with that? That’s going to seemingly be the main tenor of the session, and it’s going to have great relevance for Teton County.”

The bill at the top of the list for Teton County representatives is the school facilities appropriations bill that, if passed, would modify the state’s appropriations for school facility projects.

Reps. Gierau, Marti Halverson, R-Etna, Andy Schwartz, D-Jackson, and Sen. Leland Christensen, R-Alta, said they expect funds for the Munger Mountain Elementary School will be made available, despite the state’s $700 million school funding deficit.

Read more: http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/legislature/budget-deficit-bound-to-overlie-legislature/article_60054d1c-bd8b-5f2a-9d53-27985a2db668.html

[gejohnston]

1. That is the problem with putting your eggs in one basket,

Las Vegas taxed gambling so that they can have their good schools for free, to them. Having their cake and eat it too. Now that they don't have a monopoly on the business, they have to figure out how to fund their schools without pissing off the voters. Assuming I was going to squander money on blackjack. I'm I going to go all the way to Vegas and give it to Hilton and the Mob, or up the road to the Shoshone and Arapahoe nations that will use the profits for the benefit of their peoples?
Same problem, different industry. Yeah, we tax King Coal and Big Oil along with Brother Trona. Two decades from now, coal and oil will on its deathbed if not buried. Ford claims that they will have affordable electric and hybrid cars, including F150s, in less than that. Once green cars are affordable, and shorter recharge times are achieved, the oil patch will go the way of harpooning sperm whales.
Before that, we as a state have to face the fact that the free lunches are going to end.